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BOOK REPORTS

I retired July 2001. It was my time to go. Now, a year and a half later, one of my real pleasures has become finding and reading, not droll, bureaucratic reports, memoranda, and agendas as before, but books—mostly chronicles of real adventure and endurance. Among the several books I have read over this time, there are a few I would like to share or underscore. Each of these has something, if not several things, to recommend it. I will call them out in chronological order of publication:

The Man Who Walked Through Time. Colin Fletcher, 1971. 239pp. This book by Colin Fletcher, perhaps best known for his now four editions of the The Complete Walker, among his several other books, chronicles the author’s historic first hike of the length of Grand Canyon National Park (in the Canyon). Mr. Fletcher, who has even been called "the godfather of backpacking," is an accomplished writer and an icon of long distance walking. In this book he takes the reader along from his trip research and preparation all the way through the heat, the dust, the drought, the discovery, and the many miles of the great canyon and its allure. It is an informative and entertaining work on how the Canyon is finally overcome and experienced.

Listening for Coyote: a Walk Across Oregon’s Wilderness.. William Sullivan, 1988. 238pp. In this lively and introspective tome, William Sullivan describes his 1361-mile, two month-long, 1985 trek across Oregon’s wilderness areas. Sullivan, who is well known to many Oregonians for his many trail compendiums as well as his other outdoor writings, makes a daunting, solo, late summer backpack connecting Gold Beach on the Southern Oregon Coast with Hat Point high above Hells Canyon. The trip is of epic proportions, the writing is lean and effective, the lessons learned are most informative, and the characters encountered along the way are memorable. This is truly an impressive read.

Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey. Goran Kropp, 1997. 227pp. Ultimate High describes certainly one of the most daunting, and possibly the most unbelievable endurance adventure ever undertaken! Goran Kropp bicycled, alone, from Stockholm, Sweden to the foot of Mt. Everest. Furthermore, he carried on his bike everything he thought he would need to complete a solo ascent of Mt. Everest. And then, having survived virtually two solo climbs of this peak—one only a few hundred feet below the summit, the other gaining the summit—he bicycled back to Stockholm! Yes, unbelievable as it must seem, Mr. Kropp pulled off this incredible journey, and this book chronicles his feat.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. Bill Bryson, 1998. 276pp. If you have read this far, this book provides a perhaps welcome change of pace in outdoor hiking and backpacking. While still no small feat, Mr. Bryson takes a more leisurely backpacking trip of the Appalachian Trail. He hikes with a comrade, he skips a section, he does some out and back segments from his auto, he takes a break from the rigors of the trail, and he generally has a good time. There are also some historic, geographic, and social asides as he ruminates about the meaning and evolution of the places he experiences. And this book is written with a wry, skillful, sometimes highly irreverent, biting humor that is very entertaining.

To the Edge: A Man, Death Valley, and the Mystery of Endurance. Kirk Johnson. 2001, 287pp. And finally I have a book about running, though they are all about moving forward under human power. Kirk Johnson, a Pulitzer-nominated New York Times writer, finds perhaps ultra running’s most challenging formally organized event: a mid-summer 138-mile footrace on pavement from the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere (Badwater), through Death Valley, to the portal of the highest point in the lower 48 states (Mt. Whitney)*. While almost a non-runner initially, Mr. Johnson early on sets himself the goal of taking on, and ultimately of completing, this exceptionally difficult challenge. The book tells, in an intensely personal way, the whole trip—through months of preparation and mental struggle and ultimately of his 54-1/2 hour trip across the withering desert heat. This is a very intimate look at one man’s challenge, ordeal, and success in self-discovery.

*The race was formerly The Badwater 146, and it ran to the summit of Mt. Whitney. But several years ago the Forest Service refused to further grant permission for the use the summit trail, thus the race was "shortened" to the current 138 miles and its 8,360 foot ending elevation.

 Eb Engelmann